Google’s New Data Retention Controls GDPR goes into effect on May 25, 2018. As of this writing, companies only have 44 days left to bring their marketing, data retention, data storage, and emergency response plans into compliance. At, Chow-Bryant, we’ve been working tirelessly to make sure all of our services are in compliance with GDPR. […]

https://www.chow-bryant.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ga-data-retention-controls.png370750Bryanthttps://www.chow-bryant.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cb-header-logo-3-300x66.pngBryant2018-04-11 19:00:062018-04-30 02:22:34How to Control Data Retention in Google Analytics for GDPR

What is Event Tracking?

Event tracking is a form of conversion tracking that tracks user interactions with a website or app. You can think of an event as any user action that can be tracked and recorded independently of a simple page load. Some common events that marketers track include downloads, video plays, and button clicks. Most event tracking systems can be divided into three parts: event listeners, tags, and collection tools. There are a lot of event tracking, tag management, and analytics tools to choose from. I personally recommend Google Tag Manager because it’s the most cost-effective and accessible option for most brands. In this guide I’ll show you how to use GTM to start tracking events on your website.

Marketing reporting and analysis can be a real pain, but not to worry. Prior to working as a digital marketer, I was the development reports writer for my university. If you’re not familiar with the Office of Development, you will be one day. That’s the office that does fundraising, and my job within it was to tell people where their money went. In that role, I learned a lot about how to write an effective and actionable report. I use this knowledge daily at Chow-Bryant, and there’s no reason that you can’t too.

Business Topics That Should Be Covered in a Report

For any effective business report, there are a handful of topics that are consistently useful:

Who was touched by marketing efforts?

What was marketed to them?

What time period did this take place in? (Alternate: What is the campaign duration? When did the campaign start and end?)

What reasons did you give the audience to care?

Where was the money spent and why?

To be honest, things become tricky once you ask about budgets. People often are uncomfortable discussing money, but you must know the info to report accurately. Therefore, I recommend keeping detailed spend records within your department to make it easier on everyone.

No need to talk about money if we have documentation that does the speaking for us. Read more

You may have read the title of this article and thought, “Cats on the internet, huh? I see what you did there.” And you’re right. There’s a love affair between the internet and cats. As much as I’d love to go on a long tangent about this, I’ll save it for a future post and try to stay focused on The Cat Line.

What is Google Trends?

Google Trends is a tool that lets you track how many times people used Google to search a specific term. You can analyze and compare up to five keywords and refine the results with multiple filters. If you want to find out how many people in Brazil are searching for Rick & Morty pics in Google Image Search, then Google Trends is the tool to use.

Get Schwifty!

Cool info. Looking up search volume on random TV shows or celebrities might be fun or interesting, but it probably won’t help you accomplish your goals. This tool, though, does have its place in your internet marketing toolkit, but you need to know how to use Google Trends.

https://www.chow-bryant.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/laser-kumiko.jpg15321760Bryanthttps://www.chow-bryant.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cb-header-logo-3-300x66.pngBryant2016-11-15 16:59:172017-02-04 01:18:01How to Gauge Reach with the Cat Line and Google Trends

Are ghost referrals haunting your analytics data? Are spam referrers causing you to miscalculate the performance of your referral traffic? Fear not, for you are not alone. If you’re tracking your website traffic with an analytics tool, you are pretty much guaranteed to end up with spammy/fake traffic in your monthly analytics reports. In this article we’ll learn more about ghost referrals, how they affect your analytics data, and how to filter spam traffic out of your analytics data and monthly reports. Read more